Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Three cheers for Jean-Francoise

My area

Oh what`s up fam?

The keyboard is still weird, so please excuse
the weirdness that might occur in this email. Also, you might be proud to hear
that I have not bitten (is that a word?) my nails since before the MTC, and I
haven`t cut them once either (hahahaha) but it also makes it hard to type... so
sorry about accidentally nails hit extra keys, mistakes. Anyway, I have yet to
read your emails, but I will do that after I give you a cute lil`update on my
week. Haha I felt the extremes for sure. Ok, let`s do this:

So Monday (pday) was cool. We did the email
thing then went to Costco. They have Costco in Canada!!! But we had to go with
some elders because they were the ones with a Costco card, so it made the trip
really stressful and whatnot. I don`t like shopping much anyway, so I was happy
when we finished. The we went to this place called Chocolat Favorit or
something like that and got some super sweet ice cream cones. They dip them in
this really delicious chocolate. But it was so so so rich that I couldn`t
finish it then felt sick for the rest of the day. Oh well, it was worth it fo
sho. Then we visited with Veronique and Romeo. They are super cool
investigators. I really love talking with them. Even though by talking I mean
just sitting there and smiling while they all talk. I need to try more to
speak... But it`s hard when you can`t quite follow. It`ll come! Then we had a
family home evening lesson with a family in the ward whose son hasn`t been
coming to church as much. But, it`s really cool because apparently since the
missionaries have been working with them he`s been coming back! Woohoo you go
Jean-Francoise! We talked about Joseph Smith. What an incredible man. I love
the song Praise to the Man, I have a lot to thank him for. Then we visited
another investigator Michael. He is really cool too. He smokes though, and it`s
been hard because he doesn`t like to be pushed with it so he doesn`t want us to
ask him about it and all that. But he has a baptism date coming up... so he
kind of needs to stop. I feel so inadequate in trying to help him with that.
But, the Lord knows how to help him, and I trust that he will.

Tuesday we kind of lost some time because our
car had a flat tire and we had to get it fixed. Luckily it turns out that we
did it just in time before it got really bad. Tuesday night was really funny
because we went to teach one of our investigators, Roxanne, and she is like 11
or something. It is hard to just teach kids. Some of them don`t have great
attention spans, but its all good. Three of her little friends came though and
listened, so that was cool. And one of them was really interested and she
answered all of our questions. After we prayed with them and took some
pictures. THey were all really cute, hopefully I can send some. That
little experience was really good for me. I don`t know if anything really came
out of it, but I just felt really happy to be there in that moment, so that was
nice for sure.

Wednesday was weird.. I can`t remember why
exactly but just that it was weird. I learned some things that day. I put them
into little phrases, so here they are, ``You only fail when you fail to try`
``Success is consistently doing what you are afraid of`` «You have to lay down
your life every single day for those we teach and find» «Loving unconditionally
means loving always with no conditions» That last one seems like, well yeah, no
duh, but sometimes we put conditions on it without meaning to. Like by
thinking, I don`t love them, I don`t even know them. Well, that is a condition,
and we can`t have any of those. So I am trying to work on that. When I find
that I am struggling I just look at the person and think, they are a child of
God, and he loves them more than I can comprehend, so I should love them that
much too (maybe not that much all of the time, but just a lot, but not a creepy
amount). We have ward council on Wednesdays. We do splits for those so we can
be more effective. I stayed for the council, and kind of followed what went on.
When I really needed to know something though someone made sure to say it in
English for me. I feel bad I don`t understand, but it`ll come with time. I just
have to do what I can.

Thursday we saw a bunch of people and handed
out flyers for a party Saturday. We had our first dinner appointment with a
family and two ladies who are less active. The food was pretty good but my
problem is I haven`t been eating much because I am stressed and all that cute
stuff, so it felt like I was eating soooooo much. But it`s all good. No barf or
anything.

Friday was probably the worst day I have had so
far. I had a real break down. I think everything just caught up to me and I
kept thinking how long 18 months is and I felt no motivation to work or do
anything and I just was crying and it was really embarressed and I was pretty
ashamed. But then I read in Preach my Gospel how we are accountable to the Lord
about how we feel about our calling. That hit me pretty hard and I decided that
I had better shape or else I will be in some trouble later for being negative.
But, I realized too that obviously we are going to be upset sometimes, I just
have to do my best to not let it totally get me down to the point where I am
being a bad missionary. Because I truly am so blessed to be here. And I have
loved it. I`ve not really liked some parts too, but overall I can see that
things can and will get better if I just stay happy and positive. We went to
visit Elie and Eliathia, the way sweet family. And they were asking us abut
their baptism and how to set up the program and all of that. It was soooo
sweet!!!! They can really do this! They have changed so much and are just so
awesome! The Lord knows how to prepare his children, and I am so pumped and
thankful that I just get to see it. Oh man, that night after the lesson was
just pure joy. I haven`t felt like that before.

Saturday was the ward party thing. It`s a
tradition in Quebec to eat corn on the cob or something.. So we made a ton of
corn, did a treasure hunt thing in the rain for a few hours and talked with
people who lived in the neighborhood about the gospel. It was way sweet! Some
super awesome people came. Also there was cotton candy, that is always good. We
were there for seven hours though... and after my comp and I did almost all of
the dishes, so we were pretty tired by the end of the day. But it was so
awesome. The members here give so much time to the gospel, I feel like they do
more than me, they are such great examples.

Sunday was sweet. I could feel the spirit so
strongly and it was just a testimony to me that the spirit is the universal
language. Because even though I couldn`t understand much, I still felt blown
away by the Lord`s power. It was awesome and motivating for sure. We contacted
a bunch yesterday too. All of the people we talked to were really nice. No one was
really interested, but our job is to get the word out and bring others closer
to our Savior, and that is what we did. We saw some kids walking down the
street throwing a football, so we ran over to them and I waved to have them
pass. It was fun, and luckily I can still throw a decent spiral pass type
thing, so I was happy about that. They were from Africa and were all nice. But
they kinda were like, ok.... we`re going to go now, haha so that was awkward
and funny.

And now it is today and I am here just
stocked to write! I took pictures of your emails so I can read them later. But
thank you thank you a million times over for writing. I love you all so much
and hope that you are well. School probably starts soon! Oh, I also sent a
letter home. I may or may not have been in a bad mood when I wrote it, so sorry
about that. I`ll be better for next time!

Anyway, hope you feel caught up and all that
good stuff. Until we write again!!

Much love, like always,

Snoop Dog

P.S. Like my email title? I couldn`t think of anything good, so that is what I named it.

My trainer and moi wis some waffles

Where I live, pretty sweet! It's not baby juice, it's milk - in a bag!

Suzy's address in Canada:

Sister Suzy Kinghorn

Suzy has been called to serve in the Canada Montreal Mission - French speaking! This blog will record her adventures as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

O Canada!

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."